Digvijaya refuses to take blame for Mayawati’s Congress snub

New Delhi, Oct 3 (IANS) As BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday ruled out an alliance with the Congress for the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Assembly elections, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said he stood by his comments that she was under the Centres pressure not to ally with his party.

Digvijaya Singh, a former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, also dismissed Mayawati’s accusation that he had “sabotaged” the BSP-Congress alliance.

Mayawati had denied Digvijaya’s claims that she was under a “lot of pressure from the Centre because of which she did not want an alliance with the Congress”.

The senior Congress leader pointed out that the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister had earlier made her intentions clear by announcing an electoral pact with Ajit Jogi’s Janta Congress Chhattisgarh for the Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh.

“When Mayawati addressed a press conference with Jogi (September 20), she categorically said that she will not align with the Congress and went ahead to declare her party’s alliance with Jogi and even announced contesting 22 seats in Madhya Pradesh unilaterally,” Singh told a TV channel.

Asked if his statement on Mayawati triggered her latest snub, Singh said: “Nationally, central agencies have been let loose to suppress the voices of every political party or person who is not with the BJP or has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi or his government.”

The Congress leader added: “We will be very happy if we have an alliance with the BSP. At the national level, I have always supported the idea that all parties opposed to the BJP-RSS ideology should come together to defeat them.”